Expanding the Panama Canal

In 2006, Panamanians approved a referendum to expand the Panama Canal, doubling its capacity and allowing far larger ships to transit the 100-year-old waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific. Work began in 2007 to raise the capacity of Gatun Lake and build two new sets of locks, which would accommodate ships carrying up to 14,000 containers of freight, tripling the size limit. Sixteen massive steel gates, weighing an average of 3,100 tons each, were built in Italy and shipped to Panama to be installed in the new locks. Eight years and $5.2 billion later, the expansion project is nearing completion. The initial stages of flooding the canals have begun and the projected opening date has been set for April of 2016.

The Panama Canal expansion project sits idle as a cruise ship navigates to the Gatun Locks in Gatun, Panama, on February 20, 2014. The canal expansion project was idle for days after work was halted over a disagreement with a contractor on cost overruns.#

People take pictures as tugboats help a barge transporting the last rolling gate for the new locks on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal through the Miraflores locks in Panama City December 10, 2014. According to Panama Canal authorities, the Panama Canal's fourth set of locks has 16 rolling gates, eight for each new lock complex.#

An aerial view shows the new Panama Canal expansion project, at left, including the existing Gatun Locks on the right, during a media tour organized by contractor Salini Impregilo, in Gatun, Panama, on March 23, 2015.#

The head of the Panama Canal Authority, Jorge Quijano, opens the main valve to flood the Gatun flood chambers that will provide water to the new set of locks in the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal in Colon, Panama, on June 11, 2015. Water began flooding into an expanded section of the Panama Canal as engineers begin testing new locks.#

Workers stand by a waterfall during the start of flooding of the Panama Canal Expansion project on outskirts of Colon City on June 11, 2015. Panama canal authorities opened the valves, marking the beginning of the process of flooding the new locks on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. The new project is currently scheduled to be complete and open to traffic in April of 2016.#

Snowmelt and last week’s “bomb cyclone” have overwhelmed rivers in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and neighboring states, causing widespread flooding that has broken dozens of records and cost at least three lives.